Yes, I have to agree with adding a tad more water. Made up a batch last night using the 2/3 cup measure and it was extremely dry and crumbly. But, I didn't add a drop of extra water so we'll see how it turns out tonight.

Bringing this thread back to the top since I'm working on the cracker crust recipe for the main website.

I want to experiement with cooking temperature and time.

I've been thinking that a lower oven temperature and longer cooking time will allow the crust to cook longer, without burning, thus allowing the moisture in the crust to bake-out, or evaporate, which should produce a more crisp, more cracker-like crust. I'm thinking 425 to 450 degrees F?

Hello All. I'm a new poster to this site. I prepared the "Best ever thin cracker crust dough" yesterday. It was a little on the dry side but I resisted adding water. I may live to regret that decision as it's been about 20 hours now and the dough isn't looking very moist. Perhaps miracles will happen in the next 4 hours or so, though.

I have a question for the forum. My kids love the Domino's thin crust and I noticed on the Domino's web site that they use both yeast and baking powder in the dough. Has anyone tried this in the cracker crust recipe?

I've made this recipe twice now in the last two weeks. Both times the dough was very dry but it was very "rollable" when I went to make pizza. And, both times, the pizza turned out excellent.

Now, I want to follow up by saying that during this same two week period, I had my wife make up a batch of the dough since I had forgotten to do so. Her dough, OTOH, turned out absolutely horrible. It was waaaaay too dry and you could see bits of undisolved yeast throughout. I attempted to salvage the chunk of "dough" but it wouldn't budge under the pressure of a rolling pin.

We ended up going out to dinner that night (and tried a new pizza joint in the process).

I don't know what she did differently than I did, but she used the exact same recipe that I used and did everything by weight.

Now, I will say that this is how I do it:

I put the empty mixing bowl on my digital scale and tare to zero. I add in exactly pound (16 oz.) high gluten flour. Next, I remove the mixer bowl from the scale, then place a glass measuring cup on the scale and tare to zero. Then, I add 5.6 ounces of spring water to the cup. Then, in the microwave oven, zap the water for 30-60 seconds until it's warm. Then, I add the yeast, salt, and sugar and mix until it's all dissolved. I put everything into my food processor and run (with steel blade) for about 30-60 seconds, until the "flour" looks like coarse cornmeal and it's all sticking to the sides of the bowl. I dump everything out onto the countertop and squeeze the "crumbs" into a ball, then I knead briefly, and then let rise. The dough is very dense, but it's got enough moisture to hold its shape and is workable. After the rise, it rolls out nicely, but requires some effort.

After 22 hours, my dough still didn't look like it was rising but it smelled very yeasty. It was too crumbly to roll out so I put it back in the KitchenAid and added another tablespoon of water. I ran the mixer just until the water was incorporated. I put the dough in my oven and used the proofing setting on my oven for about an hour. After that, the dough was beautiful. I rolled it out, placed it in a 14" cutter pan and docked the dough. My oven has the element underneath the bottom floor so I placed the pan directly on the bottom of the oven for about 10 minutes before moving it up to the bottom rack.

The pizza was very crispy and had pockets of air much like the pictures shown in this forum. I was very pleased with my first try!

Do you weigh your flour?I have found that 2/3 cup water was a little short. 3/4 cup of water worked better for me.Did you tightly seal the container? i tried one with a lightly sealed proof container and I was not happy with the results.

The Dough Doctor

I think I might be able to add something to your procedure. First, be sure to take the temperature of the water after you have "nuked: it. You don't want it to be more than 90 to 95F, unless you are using active dry yeast, then the water should be 105F. This temperature is very critical. Too hot or cooler and you will not get optimum yeast activity. Next, don't mix the yeast with the salt and sugar. This is bad for thwe yeast as both will have an inhibiting affect on the yeast in the concentrated solution. Also, be sure to weigh out the water. Remember, you are only working with 1-pound (454 grams) of flour weight and 4.45 grams (28.4 grams in an ounce) is equal to 1%, so as little as 9 grams of water can make a difference in dough consistency. Your scale should be accurate to within two grams or so to allow for accurate weighing of such smoall dough sizes.A good method to use for making small batches is to put the water in the mixing bowl, add the yeast, and stir to suspend the yeast, then add the flour, salt, and sugar, mix for about 2 minutes, add the oil and continue mixing just until the ingredients are well incorporated. The dough will not be smooth. Remove the dough from ther bowl, apply salad oil to the surface of the dough and place it into a suitably sized bowl that has been lightly oiled, allow the dough to rise for 1-hour, turn the dough out of the bowl, divide into two equal pieces and form into balls, wipe with salad oil and place into two oiled bowls. Allow the dough to rise again for 45 minutes, turn out onto floured counter top and form into 10 to 12-inch diameter dough skins. I use this method all the time for teaching home baking and it really works well. If you want to get a copy of my home pizza formula please give me your e-mail address and I'll be glad to send it to you.Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor

Originally, I was baking the thin crust pizza in a very hot oven., 500° F or higher. And, I was placing the pan on the lowest oven rack so that the heating coil would superheat the pan and crisp up the dough.

But, after many pizzas, I'm not happy with that technique. The toppings usually burn before the pizza is fully cooked.

So, for the last four pizzas, I have been cooking at 450° F for about 12-15 minutes. The lower oven temperature ensures that the toppings don't burn, and the longer cook time ensures that the moisture in the dough bakes out (evaporates) of the crust which produces a crackery, crunchy, crust.

I have not had much time in the last weeks to contribute to the forum. The apartment is still a chaotic environment. The bathroom's wooden floor had to be removed and renewed. The kitchen to 1/2. Today the new carpets are being delivered and laid. One room today, the other 2 tomorrow. 1 more week of living out of boxes and having furniture stuffed into rooms that are too small to handle and then we will have this behind us..... and then I can get back to making some pizza and catching up on some of the posts and revised recipes.

One thing I noticed right away is that we have Tom Lehmann !! on our Forum now

Now that's something very exciting.... to have one of the most reknown experts on this forum. Welcome to the forum Tom and a big hello from Hamburg, Germany!

Our house was caught in a 100 year flood twice in 5 years so I know what you are going through. Funny thing now matter how many times you see is a floating case of quarts. motor oil in your garage is an odd site.